People ahoy!

Of Ghee roast , sada roast and Heat transfers

2009-10-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

The sappadu ramargal's annual meeting was convened at this year at the famed age old Karpagam Mess in Mylapore. There was Venkatadri sitting adjacent to the president carefully recording the minutes of the meeting. All the members were present. The club does not tolerate anybody missing the meeting, they had decided it was sacrilege to the venue. So there was the usual talk about passing of motions by various people. All was fine it seemed. Then it was time for the gala event, hogging of food, for this was all the club is all about. Eating.

Ambhi was immediately called for. Ambhi appeared in his immaculate dress for the occasion. The owner of the mess was an ex-member of the club and had to quit due gastronomical reasons, he was very particular about the treatment. So there was Ambhi with his 100 holed yellow brownish sleeveless shirt (aka banniyan), the dhoti was, in true with the great traditions, was folded in the box way (dabba kattu), on seeing the amount of oil used to perfectly comb his hair every member of the club was satisfied that it was going to be a fat treat. Ambi stood there in rapt attention with the Gandhian pencil out of its usual position behind his ear now in his hand. Ambhi was ready for the fight. "Sambhar Vada da, Ambhi, then Adai Avial for desert get me that superb degree coffee, you know venkatadri these days I dont drink that much coffee, in my youth..........." , then there was "Ambhi oru ghee roast da, then i will have one bonda and then kesari, i cant have the basanthi you see my wife told me not to have so much fat" , "Ambhi nekku oru keera vada da, you know when the British was there in India they rated the Kapragam mess's keerai vada as the best, I have nominated it to be featured on the Food channel then I will have on special dosai da, make sure you make the dosa immediately after the ghee roast I am on diet you see" and it went on. Ambhi's pencil was moving at the speed of light jotting everything. Then with a smile the pencil went back to its high perch.

Every one was rubbing their banana leaves with glee. The food arrived. The ghee roast of Vasudeva Iyengar was in true style folded like a maharaja's crown and the special dosai of Swaminathan was folded neatly, with the creases sharp enough to cut fingers. This would have delighted all the members of the club. But today was not any normal day. Vasudeva Iyengar's son who had just entered IIT had taught his father the art and mysticism of heat transfer and he was raring to show off his newly obtained skill.

Vasudeva Iyengar, " Oi Swaminathar ummakku theriyumma oi umma dosai is losing heat faster. Ambhi you should stop serving dosas like this. Based on the laws of convection conduction and confusion his dosa is losing heat fast. And the taste of the dosa is in the heat. Enna sollrel oi ?"

Ambhi stood there totally confused about what was going on.

Swamintahan, "Oi umma payyan IIT porannu romba than pithikkrere. Sappdum oi"

V, "Athu illa oi sappadu nanna irukkanam ollyo athu than"

The discussion was just heating up or rather cooling down (i cant make up my mind)

There on the side was Parthasarathy a new engineer. He wanted to get in.

P, " Mama athu neengo sollrathu serriya varathu mama"

V, "Ennada appa nee yaaru ?"

P," Naan Parthasarathy namma _______ payyan amma athulla illa athu than sappda vanthen"

V, " Athu enn serriya varuthu acoding to cond..."

P," Illa mama actually onga dosai than most thermodynamically inefficient, since it is like a maharaja;s crown it is fully exposed to the ambient air and not only that there is the fact that air can move to the inside of the dosa making it lose heat faster. On the other hand mama's dosa is folded neatly and its layered since most of the dosa is not exposed to air it retains heat faster"

At this time Ambhi saw that V's mouth was fully open. He thought this would be the perfect time to pour the piping hot sambhar and the mediumly warm chutney.

P," Mama now that the sambhar is poured on the dosa it changes everything, now the thermal properties would be...."

S who had not had fun like this since the days of Sunil Gavaskar;s cricket thought it was enough and he piped in

S, " Dai Pachu pothum da. Irrukkattam. Oi Vasudeva intha heat transfer problemukku ennoda thoppannar oru sooper idea vechirunthar ya. Ennannu kekkariya 'vayamudindu sapdum oi'"

Every body smiled and started attacking the food with vigour. All was well at the sappadu ramar club.

Winter woes

2008-10-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

I give up my vanity.

I give up everything that makes me, me

I give up my life, almost

I give up my dreams

I give up my virtues

I will bloom back to life

I will conquer my dreams

I will hold fast to my virtues

I would have survived the thaw,

I would live on and see many more springs.

The trees look so good at start of autumn and so inspirational. Had to do this.

Fuel woes & Hybrid cars

2008-08-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: A VERY LONG AND MAYBE A BORING POST. I WAS BORED AND DECIDED TO BORE YOU GUYS WITH IT. BORE ON NOW!!!

To most of all you this might be a small move from the usual but I tell you this is all for a good end. I love cars & bikes and I can't but wonder how a world can survive without one. All this talk about reducing emissions, increasing fossil fuel emissions, depletion of fossil fuels is getting somewhere but where? Will that do us any good ? Can we actually adopt any of them ? These are the million dollar questions that people want to know the answer to.

All this talk about having to adopt public transport is good, if we can trust the public transport to be on time. Believe me in most countries they work like clockwork. But here lies the problem in most places where they work like clockwork the frequency & the operating hours are horrifying to say the least. This being one valid reason for people to avoid using them people never will want to relinquish the little freedom if at all they have any. So where this leads us is, most of the time the public transport ends up operating at 10% of its capacity. The trains may be electric but the electricity is mostly generated by the fossil fuels. The buses either run on Diesel or CNG. They may be efficient when you take the full capacity but at 10% I doubt it very much. They also emit particulate matter, CO2, CO, the entire works. If we consider this to be a start and say people have to use them more, one word my friends, convenience . Most of us never like wasting time waiting for something but we dont spend all our time wisely, again I blame human nature for it or its just me. And we have to agree a car is never just a transportation its much more a style statement, a symbol of prestige and a lot more. So nobody is going to give it up very easily. You always have to arrive in style my friend.

Car pooling works to an extent. And most corporations are also getting greener by providing their own transportation. I bet the MBA suits have a lot more and better reasons for the company providing the transportation. One more step in that direction should be to give incentives to the people who use the mass transportation instead of their own cars to get to the office.

One thing the developed nations can learn from the developing nations is the use of small motorcycles to travel. Most of the time we travel in our car all alone. Why not ride a motorcycle to work ? Even the very fast ones have better fuel efficiency than a car (I am not even thinking about yummy mummy SUV's). The real small ones are also getting close to running very clean with all the fuel injection and catalytic converters. Yes, I agree its definitely not as safe as a car. But also you seldom fall for something which was not your mistake. Your dodge-bility increases. The icing on the cake are the mini electric scooters. These are Zero emission vehicles and also small ones so you dont waste electricity charging them. They can reach 40 mph/60kmph max. For a city with speed limits in force I dont see a point why one shouldnt ride one. At least at 40/60 you are on the limit on these :D.

The pricing of fuel should be based on the mileage you are getting out of the car. Most cars have the average fuel efficiency on their onboard computers. Why not take this data and use it to base the price of fuel on this. If you are driving a small car or a car more efficiently you are rewarded. For people driving good sports car I bet its just the price we can afford to pay for all the fun we are having. For those with big heavy SUV's, I dont know what to say, maybe pay the price for the road presence you have ? This can make people drive keeping the fuel efficiency in mind. If we are having fun we also pay for it. That makes it a fair game. Doesnt it?

I saw the story of Gordon Murray's new car on Top gear . His ideas also for the implementation are also awesome. If the above idea is implemented it would only make these small cars sell more. So if car manufacturers are listening, have you started making the calls for the lobbying ;). I bet a lot of 'green' guys would help you here.

One of my pet peeves is the hybrid car. Top gear just showed the entire world that a M3 BMW is much more fuel efficient than Toyota Prius. If at all there had to be hybrids I would say make the big SUV;s a hybrid. The fuel savings percentage will be sky high. A mile saved can be worth a lot of digits. Think in terms of cars like Escalade and the Hummer, think one more mile per gallon. Ah! see thats what I am talking about.

Fuel being depleted, no fuel in the next ten years ? Well with fuel prices increasing it is just making it more economically feasible to dig at places which were not feasible. Moreover fuel is called fossil fuel for the reason being it is decayed plants and animals basically. All autoclaved in the Earth's crust. SO there will be more fuel formed and we can dig it.

So there you have it. A small start. Lets see.

American Cars

2008-08-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hopefully my last effort at dishing out the Americas. This time its more of the things that I know a little about. And also some of my friends have also asked about this post for quite sometime. Lets put the crux of the matter first, american cars are horrible, simple, end of matter. Why ?

Handling or the non-existence of it.
Turning radius as big as the earth's.
Huge engines with very low power.

In an attempt to make the car more comfy they isolated almost all world environments which would give a feedback to most parts of the car. The steering turns the wheels but when you are turning the steering one has no idea how much the wheels are actually turning. The suspension is too soft to communicate anything except give you an illusion that one is on a boat.

I bet they did this all in good faith. They just wanted you know to know that you can actually turn a 3 ton brute with your finger (the little finger if you are strong enough) and you can definitely go for a luxury cruise to the grocery shop !!

Don't want to say anything more. THE END. Seeya.

Playing Turncoat

2008-05-31T14:44:00.000-07:00

What I am putting together is just what I think, its nothing new. We all probably have thoughts which are on the same lines.

The presence of God. The most debated thing in the entire world. This is just one more drop in the ocean.

Enough introductions lets get on with it. God. The concept of God is just a stroke of genius, a fantastic thought. And the thought is, God was a character created by our ancestors to keep us sane.He is a multi faceted character. He was/is the first psychiatrist known to mankind. Think about it, we tell God all our miseries and we feel better , the weight in our heart is lifted. Isnt that what most counsellings are about ? We talk to him about what we want, what frustrates us and what not thereby venting our feelings and making our lives less miserable. Isnt that what most people expect from a shrink ?

He is a source of hope. The one thing in this entire world who is with you always, he keeps optimism alive and kicking till the end ! We pray for certain things to happen and what are they if not a hope ? God offers a constant support. One has to accept the fact that more we pray to him and the more promises we make. This just keeps us going. You trust him, you are always on his shoulder leaning for support.

Also God was defined as a "Role model". There have been so many stories told about the righteousness, the suffering they endured. Their morals are flawless. We look to them for molding our characters. There are so many festivals based on what they did, probably just to remind us what we are supposed to do.

We can explain the creation of the universe with Big bang theories and theories of evolution. We can even explain things which happen to us, the incidents with the chaos theory, the butterfly effect thereby establishing a bit of our lack of control our future.

So there you have to it, there is God for you. A master stroke by our ancestors which has kept us going till date. So is God a work of fiction ??

The one main argument that completely shoots all the above arguments to a new galaxy is, if there is "No God" how do we explain the fact that every human being born on the face of the earth is equally talented. Someone in someway is special (No I am not getting corny here) . Think about there is always talent somewhere in someone and the chances are we suck big time at that. That makes the world a level playing field. How do we explain that ? DNA ? From what little I know, what prevents the offspring to take just the non-important parts from his parents ? But that doesn't happen does it ? There is always a some talent in a person. Doesn't this point to an external agency messing around with our genes and telling them what gets passed on and what doesn't. Isnt that convincing enough for the presence of God ?

There are we have come a full circle. Phew!!!

Indian F1

2008-04-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

This post is a complete rumination of how things could have been or will be in Force India.

Since the launch of Force India most of the people I talk to ask me if I already have a job with them. (I obviously dont, not that I wont take it if being offered or anything). So it all started at this point when me and my fellow motorsport engineer spent a couple of hours discussing how a true blue India team (make it a south Indian team while at it)should be. Here goes the essential to do stuff for getting the transformation done to make team Force "India".

We shall start from the all important kannu padamal irrukka / nazar/bad eye repelling lime and chilli in the front. See this doesnt even affect the performance of the vehicle by much, due to the shape. The lime is perfectly spherical thereby having a low frontal area and thereby a lower drag co-efficient. The chilli on the other hand if oriented in the right direction would act as a winglet producing some downforce which is awesome stuff. But the orientation is the key, fellows! So in the pits we would have some allen keys to adjust the orientation of them.

Then comes the photo of the bhootham with tongue out. The same type we hang outside our houses. Come on people the chilli cant handle it all. We need the gory / scary face to repel the bad eyes. So the rear wing will be painted with that. This is will also have a great psychological effect on the driver coming to overtake the car. Picture this, the face moving at about 300 kmph in front of you. Scary. We also thought of making Mallya do that pose we certainly think it will be more scary.
Thinking about it still.

The whole body of the car will be painted with the "ishta deivam" of the team. After much deliberation it was decided that it should be the "Murugar with Vel" (of the "Rani" calendar fame). We are confident that this will help us force more cool air into the ducts and keep the engine cool. Vettri vel Muruganukku arrogara!!

Now that the car is done lets come to the mechanics and the drivers. The drivers are going to be our very own "pallavan" drivers. The car will be fitted with air horns. ( they seriously dont know how to drive without horns). Scene,"Force India car 1 coming to overtake Lewis Hamilton, pa pa pa paaam paam, watha lewisu saavu graaki ootanda sollikunnu vanthittiya kailla kadache nasthi ayiduvva". Overtaking complete. Very Possible.

The pit lane will have a F1 stop board about 15 feet away. Come on they are our pallavan drivers. Instead of the lollypop man to signal the car it will be a bang bang on the body and a "pollam right". The car will zoom away crushing the blessed limes under the tyres.

The race engineers will shed their Nomex suits and switch to "Veshti sattai". Veshti will be worn in true Raj kiran Style, Pattapatti showing with veshti in dabba kattu.

If you had seen a race you will remember the quick banana snack they take. Not our race engineers, namma aalunga full carrier meals adikkame vidamattanga. The team pit garage will also feature a "Nair tea stall" for the benefit of the driver and the mechanics. So you will hear radio conversations like " Master oru special paal tea"
For countering any problems the ECU will have headphones on it. Our captain , Vijay Kanth's dialogs of " kanna intha racela 22 cars irrukku athulla 11 company ella ECUme FIA supplied ippo nee off annenna nee namma nattukku throgam pannra. Then ECU sends data and captain says mannippu enaakku telemetryla pudikkathe vartha" hoohaha...
So this will be our team of the future.

P.S : What inspired me to doing this post is this photo http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2008/4/7630.html
the third photo of the 4 look to the immediate right of Fisi's leg. Recognize the photo ? Its our very own Tirupati Venkatachalapthi. So me and my friend werent far off. So here we come people Watch out.

The season

2008-03-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

I know people are dying to want to hear my season's comments. And all I can say now just after watching the Malaysian gp is this is going to be one great season. One for the history books. This exactly what they call a level playing field or any body's season i guess. In Australia the performance of the Ferrari was abysmal especially Kimi's (my frnd is going to kill me for saying that aloud). I felt as if when he was pressurized he forgot that he no longer had the Traction Control and got it all wrong. I was very pissed off with his performance. But I have to give the devil its due he drove a perfect race in Malaysia. From the word go or should I say from the phrase 'Five lights and they go off and this marks the start of the Malaysian Grandprix'?

The BMW's showed a good form in the Oz and so was their performance at the Malaysian watch out guys the BMW's have arrived. The surprise at the Malaysian was the Toyota. They were nowhere last season. Suggests that money wasnt burnt at cologne. We all expected Lewis to be the man of this season at least I was. There is the new kid in the mclaren block Heiki he is awesome. Dont know what the mclarens are doing but they are definitely having a great driver arsenal. Awesome.

I felt the stab when the mclaren's made the 'Business as usual lewis' but the Ferrari did spring back. I would have loved the same hit back from the Ferrari. But they dont broadcast their radio so .... pity indeed. It was damn good to hear the Italian anthem being played. I was excited as I would be if the Indian anthem was played. The anthem kind of has grown up on me. Hope Vijay mallya is listening and we all Indians get a chance to conduct the anthem from our couches with the remote on hand. That would be definitely damn good. Even more good if its a double whammy. Is Narain or Chandok being inducted in the 'Force' ? If so guys get a darth vader helmet. The force and all. (Sorry Couldnt resist :D)

So this is going to be a great season dont miss it for anything in this world and by chance you dont follow f1. This is the best season start watching. Beats the shit out of 'sex and the city'.

I am the having fun!!!!

Quality of life

2008-02-28T22:55:00.001-08:00

Quality of life this is something a lot of people tell me that its better in the US. I beg to differ at the least. The quality of life sucks big time here. What is quality of life ?? That is the most important question. Is it just that the air you breathe is clean of Hydrocarbons or Is it that the roads are clean ? Well I don't think so. Because according to me, these are things which fascinate you when you have just arrived in the US of A. Or to that matter to any developed country. I hope my fellow student NRI's agree (also people doesnt it get on your nerves when they refer to India as third world country every time? We have almost everything these guys can afford to buy) What according to me quality of life is, living it to the fullest, enjoying every moment. You can ask me what is stopping me from doing it here. A couple of things.The conversion factor, its frigging irritating I tell you.

I don't know what gets into the people who come and settle here they tend to be overly conscious about their health, maybe its due to the health system, I wonder. They tell you not to use plastics for vessels no teflon for cooking no to ready to eat stuff (tell me how will a bachelor with no cooking skills survive ?) So you have to listen to all that. And talking of cooking, should i explain ? All of us have been spoilt with good food. So every meal is a huge depressing ordeal. Did I hear someone say food outside ? I have no idea why, all Indian restaurants I have been, I have been to a couple btw, they all have the same menu. Naan Aloo subji Palak paneer samosas gulab jamuns and chicken tikka. Other cuisines are nowhere near stomach filling, atleast for a Vegetarian it isnt. That isnt a great quality of life here.

And If you need to go out like so many people would have pointed out you need to visit weather.com get the forecast for the day and dress accordingly. How pathetic !!! The weather tends to be a bleedingly boring thing. It would be all bright and warm in the morning, urging you to get in your shorts after sometime it might even start snowing. How is that ? There is also saying around here, "If you dont like the weather just stick around for sometime its going to change" Bah! With all that layering you dont feel like going out at all. Nor here.

The worst part is you will be in a room looking at your computer screen. You feel so detached from the entire world. The entire world you see is through a broken video of a webcam. If it is some festival you spend it by people calling from India on video conference and telling you that they are missing you. And you would typically go to the Indian association's celebration on a 'convenient' weekend.

People are always working. They get bored if they dont work because there is nothing to do. They dont even have time for each other. Yes it is the same case in India too. Office drop kids at school pick them up drop them at some practice then come home cook pick them up eat sleep. No cooking in the morning mind you.

Overall the quality of life in India looks a lot better. Yes this is a mega scale rant. But I just had to get it off my chest.

An addition

2008-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

I heard from one of my friend that Mahindra is also planning to build a Small car a la Tata. If you had also read the day after the Nano's news of the Auto expo you would have found that Bajaj is also ready with a Small car and about to put it into production. So Ladies and Gentlemen there you have it Two wheelers as a frugal means of transport is on the verge of extinction that is good in a way, there will be medium and large capacity bikes, Oh oh I forgot they are already there. Yamaha. Hoo hoo.

I guess what is remaining is the Cities to be planned at Godspeed to accommodate these cars !!

India Shining Indeed

2008-02-03T12:34:00.001-08:00

No this is not a part of an Old BJP campaign (Just curious do they still use it somewhere?). India is making huge moves and i mean HUGE. And the area of course is a you might have guessed/heard is in F1. As if Vijay Mallya buying a team is not enough there might just be one more Indian team on the field. Team Super Aguri is having talks with an Indian consortium comprising of telecomm guys Spice and Tata (Sorry for these deviations I just cant control it, Do you know Tata and Mahindra are battling for the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover ? Thats definitely somethingah)

So there you have it by this time next year we will be hoping to have Two F1 race teams and a race track. India shining indeed!!! And did you know that Bernie Eccelstone, The Big B himself, was the person pushing everybody to make the Indian GP a reality. It seems he had said that India where the economy is. Agreed. India and China. But i wonder does China have its own car manufacturer who has international presence let alone fielding a F1 team ?(If you are wondering about Indian car companies, Yes Tata and Mahindra have a worldwide presence, that is mainly in the African continent and not to mention the introduction of the Tata Indica in the UK as the City Rover. I mention it at the last because i want to keep this on a positive note as much as possible ;) Hope you get the drift. Or else just google 'City Rover + reviews'.)

I was in a seminar conducted by a Claude Rouelle, a great race engineer. He also mentioned that he believes India is where the economy is and he would put his money on India rather than on China! See so people are definitely noticing India. So its high time we can say that India has arrived in the International scenario and also high time to lift her Self-esteem not that it is low or anything. Somehow I feel people should stop complaining and take a look around and if they want difference its they who should do it.

Sheesh! And I said I wanted to keep it on a positive note bah!! It has ended up like some cheesy award film. But I'm going ahead and putting this on.

Tata Nano is here

2008-01-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

Wow! Thats the word. Wow! Nothing else can capture the essence of this engineering feat. The Tata One lakh car had been subjected to a lot of ridicule and speculation about its birth and design. And here it is ladies and gentle man the ONE LAKH CAR. Called the Nano (they might have some problems from apple but dont think apple has it blocked even for cars) this does look good. Yes it does a resemble the Smart for two car a bit. But the price of the Smart for Two would be definitely more than 5 times its price and the best part is as the name says would seat only two. Think about in that terms you make something better(that is taking Tata's quality versus Mercedes's lets make no bones about who the winner is here) and cheaper. As far as the engine and power transmission is concerned I have only a few words "Its a One lakh car" please do remember the price of the car before commenting on anything. Given an option i would definitely buy one forget about the engine handling and everything. Drive it off from the showrooms have a spin and return home and park it on a pedestal where it should stand for ages to come. Yes it is definitely that monumental.
Well to give it a bit more perspective and appreciation, there is a company called Dacia. They also planned to build a very cheap car and as usual subjected to much ridicule, finally they did come out with a car which was appreciated worldwide for its cheap cost and the usability. We know this car in India as the Mahindra Renault Logan. Just think about the price difference before you comment on anything.
So there you have it people the one lakh car. And yes i'm serious about the pedestal thing, I would.

P.S : For the more techy ones yes i wish Tata had put on bigger wheels. This might be detrimental to the handling.

A tribute to Colin McRae

2008-01-08T17:08:00.001-08:00

One of the world's best drivers passed away on 15 th September 2007. The helicopter he was flying crashed near his house in Scotland. The world was shocked and rightly so. For those who have followed the WRC for even a short time would kno that Colin Mcrae was right at the top. For those who have played his games, Wow ! What a game. The perfect game to carry his name.
When he was on any rally circuit he would definitely show that he had balls. If people want to see some examples of Colin Mcraeism , go to Youtube and type in Colin Mcrae + X games 2006. Watch. I just dont want to give out any spoilers on the video if you have not seen it. Its jus awesome example of Colin Mcrae on the track.
I had the chance to watch a show by Jeremy Clarkson called the "Thrill of Speed" in that one of the episodes features Colin McRae. In that a psychiatrist explains to Jeremy that while Jeremy's brain is processing probably one or two information at a time Colin McRae's mind is so trained that he is processing so much of information at time. Jeremy then tries taking McRae's car out only to bang it into a hedge in about a couple of minutes. After this Jeremy just walks away with a great respect for McRae. I always had a great respect for Jeremy. So when his respect grew mine had to naturally grow for the great rally driver.
One could not keep him off any car. When he retired from the world of rally racing in 2004 when he didnt have a drive. He went into the world of Paris Dakar racing for sometime then after some talks with Bentley he was part of their team in Le Mann's 24 Hours race. He also attended the race of champions with very great enthusiasm. Not to mention the X-games. We could say that he almost tried driving the wheels of in almost all the classes of motor racing.
Its also said that he was working to find himself a drive in the rally world. That would have definitely been something. But things have changed and the world wil definitely not forget Colin McRae.
So this is sort of a late tribute to Colin McRae, a great driver, a great motoring name. A Minute's silence then..

HOO HOO!!

2008-01-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

I finally after much searching I have finally laid my hands on a very great book. The Book actually. This is the autobiography of Alex Zanardi. Hoo Hoo !! I'm not able to put it down. So i hope to put a post up on de book.
To the Road runner then.

Well here is something to start with

2008-01-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

If you are one of the few who kno me and read this blog you would kno tat i'm in the US doin some crap. And for those who dont, Yes I'm in de US tryin to do a MS in Motorsprt Engg (After comin here i figured that this is just a fancy name for an Automobile Engg, but thats another story).
There are a few things I would like to get out of my system, firstly I'm not a great fan of this place. Its mainly because I had had almost infinite freedom back home and that I had my own mode of transportation. It may not be a great matter for those of you who are reading it but for a guy who jus loves to drive and would be glad to run an errand jus beacause he is getting a chance to drive its a matter of great importance, couple it to the fact that the person isnt always early. Boy ! It can make a difference!
For those who still think the america is the place to be, I would like to point a few things,

The public transportation system is pathetic! There are jus not enough number and you have to be very disciplined to get on them. For a guy straight out of a college in India I believe thats a tall order.
A friend of mine recommended a great movie by Micheal Moore called "Sicko". No it wouldnt nauseate u visually but there is quite a chance that you will be disgusted with the American System. If u are in the mood I would recommend "Faranheit9/11" by the same director. Time for some enlightenment I guess.
If u think this place is clean and not nauseating. I suggest u to go to some big city like Chicago, New York or Detroit. There is quite a chance that u will start to believe India is a cleaner place!
There are so many trivial things lik most of the restaurants close by 10! There are almost no great choices if u are in the mood for a midnight snack.
The worst thing abt this place is that i had to eat the stuff i cooked. For a guy who is very choosy about food its probably the worst punishment.
If u have seen "Run" I was like Vivek thinkin "Appan vitta sabam weaponattam vanthu thakkoothe da" (For those who dont understand Tamil, it means my father's curse is attacking me lik a weapon)
These guys have subsidized the wrong stuff they have booze which is subsidized. I agree some booze is good once in a while. But thinkin that u can get drunk on some great booze cheaper than wat it costs u too fill ur stomach wid some food is not very heart warmin or should i say "Stomach" warming.

Yes there are definitely some great things about this place,
People are very polite, friendly, genial and what not in the smaller cities like the one i'm currently in.
There is absolutely no dignity of labor. There are only two stories, one u are employed and that u are unemployed. Thats it. They dont mind doing any job and i mean "Any".
You have infinite freedom to do anything. Look at me I'm doing some whacky course. Also u can start afresh very easily. I could have easily transfered from Motorsport Engg to somethin very far frm me, in terms of understanding, like Bio Technology. That is very good if u feel right now that u are doin the wrong thing. Here u can do anythin thats definitely a great boon.

So thats about it for now. I'm hoping to do something in the next post about the roads and cars here. (Arent u surprised ?? I bet u are :D) So see you till then.

I'M SORRY

2007-10-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, to the ppl who spend time readin this blog and find it intersting but find it irritating that i've not updated it. For those who think this is jus a waste of space, I'm sorry to have wasted your time. I suggest you guys go look at smething else.

Hopefully, i plan to update this page. Lets see wat happens....

OF RED ROSES AND REJECTS

2006-07-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

I happen to get a chance to drive two cars a Honda city ( the new old one that is) & Maruti Suzuki Baleno. These 2 cars are generally not compared but tell you wat these two cars would actually belong to the same group if Maruti hadn’t so “aggressively” cut the price of the Baleno. These two cars command a very unique position in the market, while the Baleno has been dropped like a hot coal the City sells like hot cakes.
The city is totally futuristic, at least in de looks dept., is wat many ppl say but in my opinion the front looks as if somebody kicked the bonnet really hard & the boot seems to be design afterthought. The interiors of the Honda are good but what were de engineers thinkin when they put such a fat A- pillar which has blind spots that would shame David Blaine at de vanishin act.
The Baleno is no looker either, its plain Jane looks never turned heads and probably won’t. Its interiors are of vintage pedigree of a bygone era. They still seem to have slider switches. The odometer and tripmeter haven’t yet caught up wid de digital age. The icing on de cake is probably de climate control unit on de top end models. Wow! Only the Swift is another car which is close by the price range which boasts one.
I was raring to have a go at de Honda city. I missed out on the older generation city and I sure wanted to make amends. Boy oh boy, was I disappointed & how the Engine is dull with almost no throttle response. The steering wheel is vague & too damn light to transmit any feedback. The car is more like playin on your comp wid de force feedback switched off. I think Honda is too much into virtual simulation and stuff, things just crept into de City project.
The Baleno has a fine Engine & a finer steering. It’s well weighted I cannot wonder wat it would be lik if de tyres were a lil lower profiled. As a car if you looked at it from an enthusiastic driver’s point of view it’s a stellar performer. The cars steering just oozes confidence into de heart and mind of de driver. It’s remarkably sensitive. The car bein a low rider has very minimal body roll. You could just close your eyes for a moment, imagine you are Schumacher or whoever your favourite car racer is, and de car wouldn’t disappoint you as the City would.
Agreed de city goes more kilometers per liter, the Engine is a refined one. It seems as though the Honda has been designed by ASIMO & it naturally chucked out de character that de old City had. The Baleno bein a great car doesn’t get the recognition it requires. To top it all if u look at de sales chart u would see de city probably outsells de Baleno one is to ten minimum. It seems ppl don’t lik any open exhibition of character. Oh dear Oh my! Wat is de world comin to??

Alex Zanardi- The fighter

2006-05-24T13:35:00.001-07:00

Alessandro Zanardi born in Bologna, an f1 racer, a CART racer is one of the toughest customers one would ever see in the world. Not because he was arrogant or anything. He lost both, yes both his legs in a CART race in Euro speedway in Germany. As Alex Zanardi was exiting the pit lane he lost control and skidded onto the track were he was clipped by a fellow racer, Tagilani who was traveling at a speed in excess of 200 MPH. Alex Zanardi’s Legs were severed off in the accident leaving him amputated below the knee.
Alex Zanardi started his career lik any other F1 racer he raced GO-Karts then moving to Formula 3 then Formula 3000. He won on his debut in F3000, he was not only the rookie of the season, he finished second in championship that year. Ya some debut season right. Having attracted the eyes of several constructors in F1 he moved to f1 in 1991. He joined the Jordan team. He started two races with them. Occasionally filling in for others racers on the grid. He was then on the roster in the Lotus team. But when the team’s active suspension was voted out of Formula 1 the team lost the competitive edge. He failed to score a point that season. He switched to the CART racing series where he became an instant hit.
He was one of those guys who would do a ‘donut’ on the track after winning the race. He became a phenomenon there. He repeated his performance of being the Rookie of the year and also finished second in the championship. He was promptly brought back into the F1 fold by Sir Frank Williams. Williams were not competitive and history repeated itself, his season was not competitive, mainly due to the reliability issues of the Williams car. So he went back to his old job, CART racing. He was fighting his way up the grid when the accident occurred.
Most of them put Zanardi away, wrote him off. The fighter in him was in full frontal attack. He put on prosthetic legs went o rehabilitation. He passed out of rehabilitation in half the time the doctors expected him to. He not only did that he did something nobody would have imagined him to do. He wanted to be strapped in the race car and complete the rest of the laps in the Euro Speedway. He amazed everybody again by doing the remaining laps at race speed. . Imagine racing at full speed when you have prosthetic legs from knee down. The spirit of Alex Zanardi cannot be compared with anything on and off the race track.
. If any of you were wonderin where Mr.Zanardi is, taking his retirement. You are all proved very wrong by him. He is very much in the racing scenario. He races in the European touring cars along with Chris Goodwin of ESPN-STAR.. It is like u can’t keep this guy of a driving seat. He won races in touring car and celebrated his victories true Zanardi style wid ‘donuts’ Alex Zanardi’s autobiography is called “My sweetest victory”, a fitting title to the autobiography of a racer, a fighter. To the fighting spirit of Alex Zanardi then.

I understand LOVE

2006-04-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

For a long time I couldn't understand why people could just flip backwards just because they have fallen in love with a person. They change ideas, the corner stones around which their lives are built are moved or worse demolished...They move heaven & Earth just for tryin to agree upon others ideals & you probably would know the stuff that comes next....
I have just found out why it happens and its so weird because I found it out by fallin in love ... I just fellin love wid an ANTIQUE BIKE if i may call it an antique or a derelict doesn't matter I just fell in love (looks don't matter right)...Its an Enfield Explorer not its macho sibling the Bullet...Before driving that bike i quite couldn't understand people drivin antique cars and people changin for women....Now I can proclaim to the world I DO.... I REALLY DO....Its just that they have that character whatever it is that the others don't....
The bike has a remaarkable character if you have watched the movie Gone in 60 seconds circa 2000 you would understand by what i mean by cajoling the bike to move....( No don't do this to me ..... no start .....start....) You would have to cajole her to move.... And when you are off you cannot be in a state of chutzpah that you have got her goin she would throw tantrums at you at the most inappropriate time....For example when you are pullin a calculated risk overatakin manoeuvre you cannot assume that she would shift seamlessly from gear to gear....The clutch would start to slip , the carbs will start sputterin for air or fuel as the mood maybe....When you try to kick the starter up without that specific touch she will start throwin up petrol in oodles all you have to do to remedy the cause is to cajole her to start...Once she has started no more throwin up she would be able to hold her drink...Will she go around corners ?? ya she will but you have to know an old bike means not so structurally strong as the presnt day bikes ,means she will flex... Its gratifyin that she is flexin everythin for you and that she might buckle or bend over just for you.....You will havwe to care for her, you can let her in the shine or in the rain for too long a time.... You will have to care for her like a baby or your girlfriend...The one main thing is that bike had never let me down when i had needed her the most she had always been ther for me....
So what is that that makes me ride around the town in a rickety rackety bike its that feelin that she's gotta mind of her own and will not like it bein bossed around...The other bikes are more disconnected ,the down to earth feelin that this bike has is completely missed.... You can almost do anything wid them and they would oblige just like a dunderhead who wouldn't want to try anything new....But i tell you guys this girl i.e. is if i can call her a girl has a mind of her own....She will do things you never thought you could given the right amount of cajolin...After all that I have told you you might have decided that nothing can be done wid this bike but believe me you can pop wheelies (the capacity of the engine being a mere 50cc for those its got the same capacity as that off a TVS 50 try poppin a wheelie wid that)...
This bike is more of a mistress than a wife she will do wicked things, throw tantrums you could never imagine and the worst she could ditch you just about anytime but that streak of character that unpredictability that has me on my knees....And I don't feel bad about it ....

Ayrton Senna - The Rain Master

2006-04-05T04:35:00.001-07:00

Ayrton (pronounced Ayeerton rather than airton) Desilva aka Ayrton Senna, he was recommended to change his name just because 'Desilva' was a very common name in Brazil ,Senna being his mothers maiden name. When I was hittin my 3rd garde my uncle was a keen follower of F1 races so I would always watch races with him. There was this guy who burst his rear tyre in a race instead of stoppin the car he was drivin on 3 wheels, though this happen quite often I saw him do it first .. And i was like wow this guy is awesome.My uncle was also praisin him like, nobody has got the reflex time as he is and that he was really awesome in the wet weather condition.. I started hero worshipping Ayrton Senna Desilva . In 1994 May 01 he died in a race in San marino at a curve called Tamburello which was a lightning shaped very fast corner...Then I started collecting information about Ayrton Senna..
Born in Sao paulo in Brazil he started his racing career in the form most drivers do Karting he never won a karting championship which was his major grousing but that didn't stop him from trying he it seems would take time off from his more advanced levels of racing like Formula 1,3 just to get the world championship... What attracted most about him is his sense of kinship and his win at all costs attitude..Sid Watkins a very close friend of Senna and the neuro surgeon of F1 used to say that At one time he and Senna were travelling by car in ythe city and the doctor had been at the wheel during the course of the drive he had aske how he was driving to ,which Ayrton had replied that he was driving very carefully but he was very very slow ..The doctor not wanting to keep the master away from his duty asked Ayrtoon to drive during which he was confirmed that he had actually experienced the phrase heart in mouth
Senna it seems could be seen in Belgian Grand prix jumping out of his car helping Erik Comas, who had crashed heavily he stopped his car ran on the track hit the engine kill switch before the car started to burn. He was also seen helpin Alex Zanardi at the same place the next year when he had crashe and he could be seen helpin him out of the car When Ralf crashed in 2004 at Indianapolis we didn't see Michael running to see him let alone help him, when everybody thought he had had a very bad shunt and he wasn't even moving..
In the season 1990 in the championship deciding race between him and Alain Prost ,Senna requested the offricials to change the side of the track because he was at a disadvantage officilas didn't agree, during the race when Prost made a move on him at the same particular place he bumped him and won the championship while both the racers were out of the race... This nature of his was criticized as video game behaviour .. I was attracted to it...
He was asked on the day before the accident to quit F1 as it was getting very dangerous then by Sid Watkins ... He told him That he had started on it and would finish it...He started a driver safety committee off the track instead...Senna is known for his peculiar yellow coloured helmet it became synonymous with him..He still holds the record for the highest no. of pole positions 65 which Michael has managed to equal just now... He also has the record for the max no. of wins at a circuit 7.... When williams team with which he drove was completely on the backfoot with a badly performoing car and a young driver with a near perfect Bennetton ,Michael Schumacher was setting the race track on fire Senna had pole positions ... A particular writer put it very well "It would seem as though he had a covenant with God...From where he summoned those pole postions remains a secret between them"...He was the fastest driver during the qualifying runs...
It has been found that the safety car period had lowered the pressure in the tyre thereby losing downforce ... His car bottomed at the Tamburello curve which made a drastic loss in downforce or grip which Senna corrected by turning his steering, it seems he might have lived but for this mistake , his quick reflexes had cost him his life...
Am ending this article on Senna with the most famous and marvellous words of his "On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit and you go for this limit and you touch this limit and you think, ok, this is the limit. As soon as you touch this limit, something happens and you realise that you can suddenly go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and your experience as well, you can fly very high."

A glimpse of wats about to come

2006-03-23T05:43:00.000-08:00

Its the start of the Formula 1 season and a few of us are all raring to see the racez to look at Alonso and Schumacher battle it out...If Kimi joinz the battle all the better....So lookin forward to a gr8 season...In the same mood I wish to start a series of all the greatest drivers and rid4ers the world has seen....Ur suggestions are most welcome....

Off I go on an INDUSTRIAL tour

2006-03-15T04:49:00.000-08:00

It's a tradition in our col tat in the 6th sem everybody goez for an industrial visit populaly known az the IV. So we guyz went on a trip to Bangalore,Mysore,Ooty. It waz planned to be a 5 day trip but waz reduced to 4 days dropping one day at B'lore we were all shoutin lik hell to the dept. sec. tat he didn't negotiate it properly and b'lore waz the place were we could hav all the fun. Boy oh boy how wrong were we ! The trip started from col by buz to b'lore. It was gr8 fun dancin an shoutin in the bus in tat closed space. There were even a few pole dance performancez given by few guys (our bus havin no specimenz of the fairer sex).I lost my voice at abt 100 kms from the startin point and havn't found it yet. Well most of us ended tat way. We reached B'lore at abt 8 in the mornin. Not even one of us gettin more tha 2 hrz of continouz sleep. At b'lore we got ready for our only visit of the industry which lasted for a time lesser than the time it took uz to get to the place and i'm not goin to bore u wit the stuff they showed uz ( to be frank i don't even remember a word of it). Off we went to eat and when it was time for us to do anythin few of them chose to get a drink. Otherz went goin hither and tither. Next morn we left to mysore went on a borin visit to the palace and the gardenz for the nth time. We left for ooty early next day, reached there by afternoon went to pykara fallz and the usual placez.We were a raccouz crowd where ever we went. Imagine unleashin a group of 100 guyz among a handful of honeymoonerz being at their romantic best. All of them were eye balled and whooped at.At night we had a party typical ooty style by the camp fire most of the guys chose it to be the rite moment to get stoned and i mean real stoned.It was gr8 fun and odd ppl makin fun at themselvez. Most of the guyz chose complete strangerz to share their life story with. There was this guy who got really angry when people called him his nick name lik pottamuz instead of Mr.Hippopottamuz he was shoutin the same thin over an over again that ppl should call him by his full name and not shorten it. He was also shoutin in the middle of the road tat he and his girlfriend were gettin married in 3 yearz. There waz thiz guy who got so high he ended up callin the lady staff in the trip for a dance in which she iz supposed to go between hiz legz true carribean style.Here was a guy who was bitchin tat though he had got gr8 marks he wasn't selected for the interview he ended up huggin everybody kissin them and screamin I LOVE YOU this is why nerds aren't supposed to drink. And then there were the guys who wanted to give the camp fire a hug.One thing abt thiz thing iz the usual drinkerz were very sober.We came back from the trip at the middle of the night.It seems there is one more IV comin in the future hope its as rockin and fun as this.So cheers ppl and do ihera the clangin of glasses.

Rules of engagement

2006-02-18T05:35:00.000-08:00

One of my friend fell in love he chose me to share his plans for their future... So I had to put up with his senti talk..He told me tat they had decided to part when their parents wouldn't agree to their love , ok people this gone be a little weird for some (atleast it was for me) , they had to maintain a minimum percentage in their academics or else divorce ,oops they weren't married yet , so its break up..What the...What happened to adages like all is fair in love and war..In for a penny in for a pound and stuff lik tat..They also agreed tat they wouldn't talk to eachother when they accidentally ran into each other they would behave completely decent and tat they would talk to one another based on the appoinments made..No appoinment...No Talkin ya like they were two ceo's talkin to each other...Both of them should have a very good job with a decent pay when leavin col ,I can live wit a part which would say they should wait until they would get a job but this was like completely weird (you probably know what i mean)..They should maintain a dresscode that is they should always wear formals no faded jeans no cargos stuff lik tat..When they didn't come out in the open abt their love that was one of the funniest parts suddenly one of them would say tat they haven't talked to the other for weeks while the other would say that he/she had talked on the previous date jus lik tat without the least provocation...come on guys if u are readin this think abt cordinated lying..Once they decided to take the bus from college together breakin all their ,i don't want to swear so ppl don't provoke me,rules they planned it lik it was a CIA mission to take down Saddam or Osama enter dude stage right enter dudette stage left look out for the guy in the red shirt take down that biker, no ppl you are not doin it right wat do they teach u at the farm these days ...Well i have only one thing to tell him ,which i told him "My friend ,they also serve him those who stand and wait" ...Though after seeing Transporter 2, i agree its got great stunts and Frank Martin(Jason Statham) rules pun unintended though ,its kind of cute to live life by the rules but ,i say this is too much guys...Lastly I would like to congratulate both of them for not breakin up and stickin to their rules and live in it that way.THREE CHEERS TO THEM hip hip hurray

Note to self

2006-02-09T08:54:00.000-08:00

I was like down in dumps that's the rite expression i suppose...The reason being well actually i don't think ther was any reason wat so ever iyt happens u see...So for redemption i made a note more of a to do thing to get myself back on the track...The list went like this...
There is nothing like outdoors the fresh air and stuff likethat that ought to bring the Wordsworth in u, so get out and do something also it may help in my girth.I thought ok let me go jogging on second thoughts jogging is a bit too hard so i thought ok may be cycling.So this becomes to do number 1 GET MY CYCLE FIXED AND GO CYCLING DAILY UNDERLINING DAILY
Ok i thought one done next lets do something abt my studies may be so i thought wat is the latest funda for the nerds it was somethin abt a designing software that would make all other designing software obsolete just like that click..(you are supposed to click ur fingers and say oh)...So this becomes number two GET INTO DESIGNING SOFTWARE CLASS..
The last and not boring you with the oft quoted phrase, was maybe i would attend GRE class simple..This is three ATTEND GRE CLASSES..
So i made a note of all these things and on impromptu board sort of thing made from some large sheets salvaged from my study..

Not wanting to wait i wanted do things pronto so i took my cycle out i found the tyres needed some fresh air too..There i went searching for a place i could fill air the day being Sunday not many shops were open..After much trying ,i was much more or less thanking the people above as i dreaded flexing my muscles except for reachin the remote,i found a shop there was this guy sittin there whom i supposed was incharge of the shop i asked him if he would fill the air judging by his expression i thought ok first todo note is abt to be stricken off. Then disaster struck the person who was actually incharge came and informed me that the compressor was not workin the other guy interveened and asked him whether he could switch it on again and check it. My hopes raised but only for a short time as the guy incharge told him it would be impossible as the fuse would blow-out.So to do no.1 is still on list..

Next day after goin to college i went to this GRE coaching center where i was questioned abt how i came to kno abt the place and crap lik tat for which i nswerd i just came to kno by people tellin me he wanted me to be more specific i got a little annoyed i told him " put it this i was walkin noticed ur sign board thought i could join classes"..He cast me wierd look agreed when u be cocky thts wat u get..I asked for a weekday batch cause i liked to while away my weekends watchin somethin and catchin up wit pals though i didn't tell him tat i told him i had other classes..He said a weekday batch was totally out of question he asked me to reschedule my othr classe...I sked him why wouldn't it be not possible for a weekday batch he answered tat at my place ther would not be not many takers so for it..I asked why in this place ther wouldn't be takers as it would be shorter and easy to concentrate...I don't kno how tat provoled him..He started goin blah blah abt how he was providin service and not doin business here and tat it was for people who would do it seriously and tat i can't thrust my opnion on people..So i was lik ther goes note 2 add this though Note to self never join this psycho's class for GRE..

As for the design thing i asked my freind who happened to have done the course who advised me tat the whole thing was a waste of time and all that thay teach are how to move the mouse around..Instead he asked me to do somethin better...I was lik ok ther goes note 3

I ended up readin Chetan Bhagat's Five point someone for the nth time...I made another Note to self when hittin the blues read FPS.